I have been meaning to go in to Verizon and straighten out my account for ages. I mean, AGES.

I knew that there had to be some way to lower my bill. DD and I were sharing a plan and DH on his own had gotten a prepaid plan without consulting anyone, and I ended up spending a fortune for several months.

I've been allowing my upgrade option to lapse because I didn't want to sign up for another two-year plan until I had this straightened out, or else I was going to go to Comcast's AARP plan with just basic phones for DH and me and let DD struggle on her own with her Blackberry.

On New Year's Eve during the day, I tried going in to the Verizon store near the office and they didn't even SEE me. I don't mean they ignored me, per se. I mean THEY DIDN'T EVEN SEE ME.

Then I realized that everyone was intent on leaving early and getting on with their New Year's celebrations, so I gave up and left.

I tried online and the online chat person couldn't do everything I needed doing. I tried telephoning and I got cut off.

FINALLY, night before last I got in to the store again and a very helpful attendant trimmed $100 a month off my bill AND we may be trimming another $25 off within a few days because I'm currently testing their wireless device on our home phone. If we decide to go with it, we'll keep our same number and save $25 a month.

I also found out that the 18% employee discount I'm supposed to get through my firm -- and which I THOUGHT I had applied for back in 2008 when I started working here, and was getting for awhile, I haven't been getting for years, probably back when we made a change somewhere along the line and it didn't get re-applied.

So: Combine the three of us into a family share plan, remove the insurance on my phone and keep delaying the upgrade instead, add the employee discount, and voila! I'm paying less now for three of us than I was paying for both DD and me together before. Which means DH's plan is essentially free.

Ugh, I hate that (not saving sooner). DH called Comcast because our bill was almost $200. He got it knocked down to $160 and added Showtime (Dexter) by just mentioning Direct TV. It pays to call and negotiate.....often. I wish it worked with natural gas and electricity.